|
|
|
|
|
Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of October 12, 2009This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! The flu seems to have hit early and hit hard all over the country. In my neck of the woods we've had several schools close because so many students have the flu. I've found several sites (compliments of Earthlink) that provides information to help you avoid the flu and what to do if you get sick:
Here are a couple of videos that may make your life a little easier:
I need your tips!! I'm ran out of subscriber tips and have to rely on outside tips to fill the newsletter tips area. You can get some very valuable gifts by sending in your favorite tips. Just visit the below page and fill out the form: Your Subscriber Benefits Page That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementTHE FASTER YOU CAN PAY THEM OFF! Paying highest-interest debt first is the SLOWEST way out ... You can laugh at money worries - if you follow our simple plan. Discover savvy consumer money secrets your friends don't know and banks won't tell you. Limited time only. ACT NOW: http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=107959 Grandpa Terry's Tip of the WeekI'm going to turn the tip of the week over to a buddy of mine that sent some great tips he found. Thanks Ken! Reheat Pizza Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to medium low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy microwave pizza. Easy Deviled Eggs Put cooked egg yolks in a ziplock bag. Seal and mash until they are all broken up. Add the remainder of the ingredients, then reseal and keep mashing it up, mixing thoroughly. Cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze the mixture into the egg white. Just throw bag away when done for an easy clean up. Expanding Frosting When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it its' size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar/calories per serving. Reheating Refrigerated Bread To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster. Newspaper Weeds Away Start putting in your plants; work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers and place them in layers around the plants, overlapping as you go. Then cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers. Broken Glass Use a dry cotton ball to pick up little broken glass pieces of glass. The cotton fibers grab hold of the little pieces of glass shards, the ones you can't even see! No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away. Squirrel Away! To keep squirrels from eating your plants sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it. Flexible Vacuum To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to the end of your vacuum hose. The cardboard tube can be bent or flattened to gee t into the narrow openings. Reducing Static Cling Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and static is gone. Measuring Cups Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out. Foggy Windshield? Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth! Reopening an Envelope If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. It will unseal easily. Conditioner Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when you tried it in your hair. Goodbye Fruit Flies To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass fill it 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid, mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever. Get Rid of Ants Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it home, but can't digest it, so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains. But it works and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed. Take Baby Powder to the Beach Keep a small bottle of baby powder in your beach bag. When your ready to leave the beach sprinkle yourself and kids with the powder and the sa nd will slide right off your skin. Sponsor AdvertisementAre you frustrated trying to get by on the money you make? Would you like to get a good view to where all your money is going? Would you like to start saving your money, or save even more? Looking for something easier then software like Quicken or Money? Would you like to teach your children about finance? Click Here to check out My Budget Planner Today Grandpa Terry's EmailHi Terry!I hope you have had a great week. We found good recipes for bacon gravy and fried potatoes and cooked it Friday night. Very delicious and filling and most important very CHEAP meal! It will become a staple for 2 or 3 times per month for us. I discovered ING this week. You may already know about them but they pay 1.3 % interest on savings accounts with no minimum and FDIC insured. They are a Dutch bank operating world wide. The Dutch are known for being thrifty. They are able to pay a much higher interest rate because they are an on line bank so not much cost in brick and mortar. They are worth checking out. My credit union only pays .1 % interest so 1.3% was worth it to me to open an account with them over the phone and on line. I hope the $25,000 fine and/or year in prison for not buying health insurance from the “GREEDY INSURANCE COMPANIES” will not stand if they pass this health care initiative. I thought the idea was to help people and not create greater burdens. I am sure the founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves. What freedom!? Jim I am not sure what to do with some money. I am in Debt. I have a lien against my property from IRS and a small loan company. I owe Medical Bills. I live in a single wide mobile home that is falling apart. I do not owe on the home. I do owe on the 58 acres. My husband and I are getting a settlement on a relatives estate.roughly $35,000.00. I need a place to live. THe Floors are what is falling in. I fell through Hallway floor just a couple of weeks ago. My bathtub has cracks in it and the bathroom floor is falling in. Should we use some of the money for a down payment for a home and pay on some bills, or should we repair what we have? It is a 1989 Clayton Mobile home. I should also tell you that the mobile home is located in a flood area, Floods almost every couple of years and have had to move out when water comes up. It has never gotten into the mobile home. it did get into the house we had here before. the 58 acres we have is farm ground and it is about 5 miles from where we live and there is no home on it, it does not flood. The IRS, I have consulted a CPA and he is looking over my taxes from past where H&R block filled. Has told me that he can fix it. Husband OTR truck driver and they didn't let us take all deductions. I have an appt with him again Oct. 16th. I just feel like this is like a 2nd chance and just want to do the right thing with this to help us live a better life. The lein is from Heights finance for less than $1800.00. We do not have credit cards. Thanks Tammy My Response Hi Tammy, It's extremely hard to give you a plan for spending your settlement without knowing a lot of details of your finances. However, I like to recommend that you "Budget Now and Budget Then". In other words, figure your budget the way it is now. Then use several scenarios to develop a budget so that you feel you have made the best use of the money. Here are a few things to consider: 1. I would seriously consider using some of the money to purchase a home/mobile home. Remember, you may save several thousands of dollars by purchasing a 1-3 year old mobile home. Just make sure it is in good shape.. It would probably be a good idea to move onto your 58 acres and get out of the flood area. 2. Pay off as many small bills (loans and medical bills) as you can. 3. After your CPA recomputes your tax bill consider a settlement with the irs. Your CPA can explain that to you. 4. Try to put a few thousand dollars back for a crisis fund. I hope this helps. I would like your permission to run this in the newsletter. Good luck, Grandpa Terry Featured ArticleBy Terry Rigg Do you think you have a lot of bills? If so, you are probably right. But have you considered the bill that costs you the most each month? On average your housing costs probably run about 30% of your take home pay. Your other bills which include utilities, credit cards, etc. also run about 30% of your take home pay. It probably takes another 30% to run your household and if you are lucky you can stash the remaining 10% in a savings account. What are your percentages? Do you know? That's the problem. Most people run their budget out of their wallet. There is that hideous word "Budget". Many people compare operating their finances with a budget to having a ball and chain attached to their wallet. They won't be able to get anything they want for the rest of their lives. Let's see if the following scenario fits you:
You write out your bills. You give your spouse some money. You wait for next payday to get some more money so you can do the same thing. Most of the people I work with have no idea how much money they make or how much they owe. While money may be important to them it is way to much trouble to learn how to manage it. This is the very reason there were $1.5 million bankruptcies in this country last year. I can almost guarantee that if you are trying to run your finances like the scenario above at some point you are going to run into problems. It simply can't work. The main reason for this is that you never get a broad picture of where you are financially. You pay the bills and hope you have enough money to buy your groceries and put gas in the car until next payday. Most people can add and subtract. That's all there is to a budget. If you aren't willing to take the time then living paycheck to paycheck will be with you the rest of your life. I call this "Financial Complacency" which simply means that you know you need to manage your money better but aren't willing to do what's necessary. Here are a few excuses I hear to justify this:
I owe too much to set up a budget. I'm not good with numbers. I just don't have the time to keep up with a budget. I can't get my spouse to work with me. Well, that's the problem but what about a solution. The solution is simple no matter what your financial situation is. First, you must find out where you stand now. That could be as simple as writing down your income and bills and expenses on a piece of notebook paper. Then subtract your expenses from your income. Make sure to include your household expenses (groceries, car gas, etc.) in your expenses. Now look at the numbers. Do you have anything left over? If so what are you going to do with it? That's the next step. If you don't then you need to consider cutting some of those expenses. Now you need to decide what you really want your money to do for you. Set your goals! This could be saving for your retirement, buying a home, college for the kids, getting a new car or any number of things. That's why you have to decide for yourself. There are just too many variables for someone else to help you. My first suggestion is that if you have credit card debt you look for a way to pay them off and stop using them. Realizing that goal could make your other goals more likely to succeed. Now it's time to set up that dreaded budget. Where are you going to find the time and desire to write everything down that you spend and all the other stuff that goes along with keeping a budget? The answer is that you don't have to! One of the biggest myths about budgeting is that you need to keep up with it everyday. That's the reason so many people refuse to try. It does take a little time to get your budget setup. There are a lot of things that need to be considered. But once your finances are down on paper there is no reason to work on it except on payday. You will find a link to a free budget like this in the bio of this article. If you believe that managing your money is to difficult or just too much trouble consider the alternative. Not managing your money is probably robbing you of thousands of dollars a year and could lead to financial disaster. |
|
Copyright © 2000-2009 Budget Stretcher All rights Reserved. |
